Water and Music

Song: "Streamside"

Artist: The Album Leaf

Album: In A Safe Place

From: San Diego, California

Year: 2004

As the snowflakes are beginning to fall (and stick) in my backyard grass, weeds, and porch banister, I come to find The Album Leaf's music is even warmer than before.  I can sit fireside with a cup of hot chocolate (or Bailey's) and slowly drift somewhere deep in my head.  "Streamside" is exactly the type of song I think of when things are mellow, could be better or worse, but I'm content because so and so correlated with this and that, and everything will be okay.  You have those moments?  To be clear[er], "Streamside" is the kind of song that's good for grass-laying, sky-staring, or tuning out the city but watching it at the same time.

The Album Leaf can be compared to Explosions in the Sky or El Ten Eleven, though the drums aren't as heavily used in their music.  Sometimes when you google this band, you might see advertisements for yoga practices, although I do not think The Album Leaf is yoga appropriate.  "Streamside" is exactly it's title.  I wonder where it was written or thought of.  Was Jimmy LaValle sitting next to some random stream in Western Pennsylvania or down a small valley in Southern Cali?  The songs longing for that small piece that's missing in our lives replays itself in the accordion drools.  The acoustic guitars comply so harmoniously, they sound like a lullaby I forgot from my childhood- there's a familiarity in this tune that makes this song comfortable.  No pretense.  No fret.  You can watch the fishies (purposely childish dreamlike word choice) swim by and as they wish to be colorful and pretty, you can day dream for three minutes and thirty-four seconds.  If you give it a listen maybe your anxieties will go away for a few moments in time, and you can concentrate on what's good.